However, with stress testing you are trying to see how far your system or one of its fundamental components will operate and behave at the limit of its performance and before breaking. You also want to see how it performs when it breaks. You want to see the system initiate a graceful close down operation including error reporting, transaction back out and recovery processes. You will also want to see how the system reacts to simulated high loads (load testing) and high volumes (volume testing).